America’s most popular
city mayors on TwitterResearch by City Mayors*

18 November 2012: With a few exceptions, all mayors of America’s largest cities use social media to communicate with residents but, with more than 1.2 million followers on Twitter, the Mayor of Newark, NJ, is in a league of his own. Cory Booker’s personal Twitter page records almost five times as many followers than his city has residents. New York’s Michael Bloomberg has the second highest number of Twitter followers of any US mayor. The mayors of Portland, Illinois and San Antonio complete the top five of most popular Twitter mayors.

All big-city mayors follow considerably fewer Twitter accounts than they have followers, except that is for the Mayor of Portland, Sam Adams, who records 56,100 followers on Twitter and claims to follow 56,600 other users. Newark’s Cory Booker says he follows more than 62,000 other Twitter users, but the mayors of Tulsa and Chicago follow only one or two people. Dewey Bartlett, Tulsa, follows his city’s official Twitter page, while Rahm Emanuel, Chicago, follows the City of Chicago page and the Twitter account of a Cory Chism.

Some mayors prefer to use Twitter messages simply to inform, while others are also happy to chat. Cory Booker will tweet about everything and anything, from sport, movies to politics, although with virtually three tweets every hour, one wonders whether he has time for anything else. Michael Bloomberg’s tweets address more pertinent matters. His most recent 140-character messages deal with the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. The Twitter page of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who lists less than 1,000 tweets - Cory Booker has more than 22,000 recorded on his Twitter page  contains a mix of political, personal and informative messages.

Some mayors are honest enough to state that their personal Twitter pages are maintained by members of staff, while other like to keep up the illusion that the thousand of tweets are all their own handiwork.

US mayors on Twitter*

Rank

City

Mayor

Followers**

Following**

1

Newark
New Jersey

Cory Booker

1,280,800

62,400

2

New York City
New York State

Michael Bloomberg

389,900

200

3

Portland
Oregon

Sam Adams

56,100

56,600

4

Chicago
Illinois

Rahm Emanuel

52,400

2

5

San AntonioTexas

Julian Castro

40,700

1,600

6

Sacramento
California

Kevin Johnson

33,100

13,500

7

Philadelphia
Pennsylvania

Michael Nutter

32,400

400

8

Atlanta
Georgia

Kasim Reed

31,100

5,500

9

Minneapolis
Minnesota

R T Ryback

23,500

3,900

10

San Francisco
California

Edwin Lee

20,100

200

11

Boston
Massachusetts

Thomas Menino

19,100

3,000

12

St Louis
Missouri

Francis Slay

16,800

2,400

13

Houston
Texas

Annise Parker

13,200

2,300

14

Detroit
Michigan

Dave Bing

13,000

1,300

15

Baltimore
Maryland

Stephanie Rawlings-Blake

12,300

700

16

New Orleans
Louisiana

Mitch Landriey

10,800

1,000

17

Washington DC
District of Columbia

Vincent Gray

10,400

300

18

Memphis
Tennessee

A C Wharton

10,300

4,900

19

Indianapolis
Indiana

Greg Ballard

9,800

1,000

20

Seattle
Washington

Mike McGinn

9,700

1,800

21

Charlotte
North Carolina

Anthony Foxx

8,100

3,900

22

San Diego
California

Jerry Sanders

7,900

1,600

23

Kansas City
Missouri

Sly James

5,800

5,700

24

Columbus
Ohio

Mike Coleman

5,500

900

25

Louisville
Kentucky

Greg Fischer

5,300

200

26

Oakland
California

Jean Quan

4,700

1,200

27

Denver
Colorado

Michael Hancock

4,600

2,000

28

Los Angeles
California

Antonio Villaraigosa

3,900

37

29

Jacksonville
Florida

Alvin Brown

3,800

1,800

30

Omaha
Nebraska

Jim Suttle

3,300

1,500

31

Las Vegas
Nevada

Carolyn Goodman

3,200

2,400

32

Mesa
Arizona

Scott Smith

3,100

700

33

Phoenix
Arizona

Greg Stanton

3,100

700

34

Austin
Texas

Lee Leffingwell

3,000

900

35

Pittsburgh
Pennsylvania

Luke Ravenstahl

2,900

200

36

Fresno
California

Ashley Swearengin

2,500

21

37

Forth Worth
Texas

Betsy Price

2,300

1,000

38

Wichita
Kansas

Carl Brewer

2,200

31

39

Dallas
Texas

Mike Rawlings

1,900

600

40

Colorado Springs
Colorado

Steve Bach

1,700

900

41

Long Beach
California

Bob Foster

800

300

42

Miami
Florida

Tomas Regalado

800

100

43

Tulsa
Oklahoma

Dewey Bartlett

300

1

44

Albuquerque
New Mexico

Richard Berry

200

30

*The research for this article was carried out on 17 and 18 November 2012.* Figures were rounded up to the nearest hundred

With more than 1.2 million followers, Newark Mayor Cory Booker is America's City Hall Twitter champion

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